


The Definition is a Lie

by NightFlare13



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Fiveya Week, Fluff, Growing Up Together, Marriage Proposal, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 23:02:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightFlare13/pseuds/NightFlare13
Summary: Five never really knew what family was, because his didn't fit the typical definition of the word. He grows up and figures out who is family really are.





	The Definition is a Lie

Day Four – Family

Family was always confusing to Five.

At six years old, he saw it was always portrayed as two parents and three kids and a golden Labrador behind a white picket fence with big white smiles and bright sunshine. His family didn’t compare. They were one old man who raised them not as children but as soldiers, with six other kids with superpowers, a chimpanzee and a robot Mom. So, Five gave up the idea of family at the age of six.

At thirteen, he started wondering about his birth mother. How old was she? Where was she from? Did she have any other children before he was born, or after? He knew it didn’t matter, she sold him for whatever sum of money Reginald was willing to pay. She gave him up, and it shouldn’t have mattered. She wasn’t his real family.

At seventeen, the group of people Five did consider “family” were a complete mess.

Luther was still a complete knucklehead, who saw his only problems as the other’s disrespect to the man he still called a Father. Five had let that notion go a decade ago. Luther was still drooling over Allison at the dinner table, showing up to training and actually following their schedule like it mattered. It was almost funny to watch, but also sad at the same time. Five wondered if the conversation he overheard about he and Luther being twins was true, because it would make Luther his only blood relative.

Diego was as hot-headed as ever, and was bursting at the seams to leave. He had an application form for the Police Academy the moment he turned eighteen, and the knowledge of getting somewhere in life before the others had not only inflated his constantly bruised ego, but made him even more taunting and competitive than Luther.

Allison was bored. She regularly complained about the uniform, not being allowed her own clothes, how her room was too childish now and how she wasn’t allowed to do anything or go anywhere. She was still into Luther, it was obvious, but she was more into busting out and getting into the movie business. She knew, like anyone else, Luther would never leave. So, in a way, she’d given up on him too, it was inevitable. She kept pushing the lines and boundaries and breaking little rules frequently, trying to get attention.

Klaus was…well, nobody knew with Klaus. He was almost numb, obviously from some kind of drug or alcohol he had stashed in his room overnight. Five hurt for Klaus, in the “No, I don’t care” way that he cared for people. Klaus was getting a fix from somewhere, and sometimes he heard people, men, women, coming into his room late at night, getting sexual favours in return for drugs and money. Klaus was tortured and when shouted out for being half an hour late to a meal or straight up not turning up for training, he just stood there and blinked at Reginald. Klaus was broken.

Ben was just depressed these days. He was still the kindest, quietest of the bunch, but…as broken as Klaus was. Someone was leaving bloody razor blades in the bathrooms at times, and Five had no idea who it could be. He doubted it was Klaus, he was getting his own fix out of drugs, and Luther and Allison were happy enough to not need to resort to that. It didn’t seem to be Diego either, so Five worried it was Ben. He still cried himself to sleep. And he’d stopped participating in missions. He would just get into a corner and stay there.

Vanya was the only person in the house Five liked spending time with. No, he loved spending time with. She was his best friend, sole confidante, whatever. She was the only person Five actually loved. As what, he couldn’t say. He didn’t think it was family love, not that he’d ever really experienced that either. It was more…burning. Like a hot, fast feeling in his chest he couldn’t shake. She was beautiful and soft and gentle and though he knew she was very unhappy; she was just holding on to eighteen. And Five couldn’t wait.

At eighteen, every number beside Luther moved out. Their bags were packed the night before, Allison had a plane ticket off to LA, Ben and Diego were moving in together, and Klaus was going somewhere. They didn’t know.

Vanya was moving into a little apartment on the top floor of an apartment building downtown, and Five was moving with her with money they’d stolen. As they unpacked their things and went shopping for civilian clothes, he thought they would be happy. They would be. And maybe she would be his family.

At twenty-three, the line of family was still blurry. The other numbers were family. Grace and Pogo were family. But Vanya was something else. Evident by the time he grabbed her hand to warm it up during a walk through the park in winter, had a scowl across his face when she was walked home by some guy from the orchestra, and let’s not forget the countless nights he big spooned her. Yeah, Vanya was something else.

At twenty-four, Diego got married. Took her last name. And she was nice. Sharp, smart. Perfect for Diego, really. And she was family, Five supposed. He still didn’t know what that was and who to accept into it, but he supposed Eudora Patch was family.

At twenty-five, he and Vanya were officially an unofficial couple. Which basically meant they kissed every morning and had dates every night and met each other after work, and then hurried home for another session of rough, possessive sex. But they were not out as a couple to the people they’d grown up with.

Vanya regarded them as family. She told him they were. Five agreed, but he didn’t really know what to say to _telling_ them they were dating. They might look at it weird, and Five didn’t want Vanya to think that. She was the only person he loved more than anything else. And she was finally his. Nobody was taking that away from him.

Then Allison saw them having dinner in a more luxurious restaurant one night, thought nothing of it, and then saw them making out in their car when she went to go say hi. Which led to a rather embarrassing family meeting. Five thinks he understands what family actually is. Maybe it is this group of complete adult children who have more trauma then they do brain cells.

And then Vanya doesn’t come home one night. He’d been working late, yeah, but she wasn’t there when he got home. And she wasn’t answering her phone. Five went into a state of complete panic, calling everybody he knew cared and telling them to look for her while he teleported to her orchestra, yelling out her name into the streets in utter fear.

The building was dark, and the surrounding street silent. She’d left. She’d left the building and not come home-

“FIVE!”

Five spins on his heel, sprinting down the street to where he heard her voice, it was definitely her, he’d know that anywhere. He can hear scuffling now, a car sitting with the engine running. When he turns the corner, a van is parked on the side of an alleyway, the back doors open and three men stood, two of them wrestling Vanya into the van. She can’t see him, none of them can, but he has an advantage, and running on nothing but rage and fear, jumps over. He has every damn right and reason to put a bullet in their heads now, he could, but he settles for knocking two of them out and breaking several of their bones, not able to reach the third as he speeds off with the van.

Vanya falls into his arms, sobbing and clawing at him, holding onto him for dear life. He can do nothing but hold her back, teleport them back up to their apartment, her exhausted and terrified form still trembling. He ends up just picking her up completely, carrying her into the bathroom of their apartment and switching on the hot taps, undressing her slowly as she cries.

“It’s okay…I’ve got you, you’re safe. It’s okay, V. I love you, and you’re safe.” He says gently, running a hand through her long hair and rubbing her shoulders.

When the bath is run, he gently lowers her in, easing her down so he can wash her hair properly. He isn’t normally this gentle, but he’s never been as scared as he was tonight. He thought he was going to lose her. Forever. Lose the most important part of his family.

He wraps her in the nicest towel they have and puts a separate one on her hair, setting her on their bed and setting out some pyjamas for her. She’s looking at him now, making vague expressions but she’s still crying silently so he decides to just dress her himself, wrapping her up in the blanket when she’s dressed.

Five makes a cup of the tea she likes, sets it next to her. He’ll talk to her later, right now he just wants her to feel okay and safe. After a few sips of the tea, she zones back in, tucking herself into his side and wiping her eyes, only for them to well up again.

“I love you,” she whispers, sniffling for a few minutes before dozing off.

…

At twenty-six, Five doesn’t want to see guys looking at Vanya on the street. He doesn’t want them trying to hit her up, try and get her number. He wants her to be his, and for everyone else to know that she’s his, his family.

He goes out and buys a diamond ring with their initials graved on the inside of the band, and has two tiny little sapphires embedded either side. He doesn’t say anything about it for a few weeks, until he asks if she wants to go for a walk along the riverside near the restaurant they went to.

For once, Five is nervous. What is he going to do if she says no?

They stop for a minute, Vanya completely enamoured by the waterfall in front of them, and Five can’t wait any longer. When she turns back around to head home, Five’s on one knee in front of her, holding out a box with a diamond ring inside. She steps back, startled, hands coming to her mouth as she gasps.

“Marry me?”

Vanya nods shakily, crying already as she leaps into his arms and they tumble to the grass, Vanya giggling with glee. Five grabs her hand and slides the ring up her finger.

….

At twenty seven, Five makes Vanya _his. _His family, his lover, his everything. The rings and the certificate and the fancy ceremony prove it, but he just needs _her. _Her and her pretty little smile when she wakes up in his arms and he carries them into the shower and then back to bed soon after.

….

“Five? Can I talk to you?” Vanya asks softly from across the living room. She’s been really quiet all week and Five hasn’t been able to figure out why. When he nods, she shuffles across the room and sits next to him on their couch, wringing her fingers together and twiddling with her wedding band.

“I…this is kind of hard to say…” she starts nervously, her voice shaky and wavering. He takes her trembling hand in his and rubs her knuckles gently.

“Just say it. I won’t judge you Vanya. You know that.”

“I, um, just- here!” she finally exclaims, frustrated and too full of nerves as she presses a piece of plastic into his hands. A pregnancy test. She’s pregnant.

“Is this real?” he asks dumbly, his jaw hanging open a little.

“Y-Yeah. I’m pregnant.” She whispers, the tension in her shoulders dropping as he cries with her, holding her tightly.

…

“Oh, she’s perfect.” Allison whispers as she holds their new-born baby daughter, Angie Rose. Vanya’s half asleep on the bed in their little hospital room, as are Klaus and Diego on the couch, Luther on the floor and Angie in Allison’s arms. Allison carefully puts her back with her mother and moves back to the chair she was in to sleep.

And Five knows what family is.


End file.
